Hall of Idols #59: Michael J. Fox

Fifty-ninth installment in a series exploring very important people in my life.

Let me start explaining how this will work: I listed 65 idols of mine. Every Friday (with the exception of those reserved for the Rock Chain posts) I’ll draw one of the names (following a system that it’s really not important to be explained here) and talk about it.

Therefore, the order in which the names will appear doesn’t necessarily shows where they rank in my preference.

As a final introductory note, this is also not a biography article. I’ll just write how I feel about people represented in it, their talent and their importance in my life.

How many times in your life you whished you were a specific movie character? Probably several. Personally, I can think of many times where I looked in the screen and thought: “Man, I wish I was that character”. Not the actor, performing the character, THE character. And let’s get one thing clear: I’m not talking about characters that manage to hook up with the hottest chicks, I’m talking about adventures.

If you put a compelling character and an even more compelling story, with let’s say, time travelling involved, then there’s a good chance millions (and I do mean millions) of people will dream of being that character.

If the actor portraying is competent and seem born to do that role, then you’re on to a big winner. And that’s the case with the Back to the Future trilogy and Marty McFly, portrayed by Michael J. Fox.

Michael Andrew Fox was born June 9, 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His mother Phyllis was an actress and his father William was a police officer and a member of the Canadian forces. After living in many cities due to his father job, the family settled in Vancouver in 1971 where Michael went to Burnaby Central Secondary School. Nowadays, the school theater is named after him.

Anyway, after starring in a Canadian television series called Leo and Me at the age of 15, he decided to go to LA at 18 to further his acting career.

He started using the name Michael Fox, but discovered there was already an actor using that name. He didn’t like “A. Fox” because it sounded like he was saying he was attractive so he changed to “J. Fox” to honor actor Michael J. Pollard.

Now, I wanna say something: I know he had won four Emmys, four Golden Globes and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for his performances in the series Family Ties and Spin City. But, he’s Marty McFly, period.

Can you imagine someone else in that role? I mean he’s perfect. Of course, I’m biased when I say that because the Back to the Future trilogy is my favorite thing in the history of movies, but his performance has a lot to do with it.

Of course, I really like some of his performances in other movies like the entertaining Teen Wolf, the funny The Secret of My Success and as that priceless bellboy in For Love or Money with the gorgeous Gabrielle Anwar, but after all this years, he’s still Marty McFly. And prove of how much he impacted the lives of millions was the worldwide celebration of 10/21/2015, the date he arrives in the future. Everybody remembered it 25 years after the movie had been released!

And he also deserves to be admired by how he handles his Parkinson Disease and advocates for research about it. He created the Michal J. Fox Foundation to help research for a cure including embryonic stem cell studies.

And the cherry on the cake: Michael is real Rocker who actually played guitar and tried for a position as a bass player in Canadian Hard Rock band Helix while he was still a teen living in Canada!

For all that, Mr. J. Fox come back from the future and get in the Hall of Idols.